"We curated this collection of images and wrote this book for a number of reasons," says the books co-author Kathryn Hamm. "The first is that Thea Dodds [the books other co-author], who is herself a talented photographer, realized that there were no resources to help professionals like herself take outstanding photographs of same-sex couples. The educational resources and teaching materials in the industry are all based on notions of a masculine/feminine pairing.

And, of course, she and Dodds hopes it helps foster an even more positive image of the LGBTQ community. "We wrote this book to broaden the notion of who the LGBT community is," Hamm, who is also the president of GayWeddings.com, said. "Ultimately, we have found that the opportunity to experience same-sex weddings and to see loving couples makes a big difference in humanizing our community, and in helping folks to understand why marriage equality is so important to us as a community."